Roselyn Sanchez biography

Born in Puerto Rico, Roselyn Sanchez studied marketing at the University of Puerto Rico in order to take over her father's business when he retired. At the same time, she was appearing in beauty pageants as well as co-hosting the television variety show Que Vacilon, and she finally came to the realization that she was more interested in performing than in studying business. Sanchez dropped out of school and moved to New York City when she was 21, to take acting, singing and dancing lessons. She soon made her feature film debut playing a small role in the feature film Captain Ron (1992), starring Kurt Russell. Sanchez also modeled and appeared in beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Puerto Rico Petite 1993 and the following year, won the international title of Miss America Petite. Not content to sit back and wait for roles to come her way, she appeared onstage in New York in her own one-woman show called Out Here on my Own, before becoming the first Latina character ever on the long-running soap opera As the World Turns in 1996. She played the role for a year, then landed the regular role of Lili Arguelo on the new TV series Fame L.A. The series lasted only one season, but Sanchez soon landed a supporting role in the feature film Held Up (1999).

In 1999, she won the recurring role of a young police officer in the Fox television drama series Ryan Caulfield: Year One. When the show was cancelled, Sanchez played two different characters in guest roles on the television drama Nash Bridges before landing her breakthrough role as Jackie Chan's love interest in the Hollywood blockbuster Rush Hour 2 (2001). Suddenly finding herself in demand, Sanchez quickly found herself starring in Boat Trip(2003) alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., Basic (2003) with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, and Chasing Papi (2003).